Trooper Tales — page 82: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

74 The Wooing of Benito. when the big soldier peered in he saw the bowed head of the Porto Rican, trembling in sorrow. And Toreador, with hurting wounds and shrunken eyes, drowsed and dreamed in the dark. A thought crept into the head of Silk Redmond. It caused him to chase over to a store. It made him pur- chase a candle and return to the hut of Benito. And everybody stared hard at the tall trooper as he passed by. They knew that he had no right to be walking the streets of quarantined Corizel. “I’m going to find out what that poor devil is ‘loco’ about,” muttered Redmond as he tapped at the door of the shack. He held the bag of silver in one hand. In silence and solemnity the cavalryman lit the candle, and looked into the eyes of the Porto Rican. They were great, dark eyes, staring in wonderment and grief, and lustrous with tears. They moved piteously from the bag of silver to the face of the cavalryman, who came from the great land over in the northwest beyond the sea, and they grew more lustrous with tears. Then the two talked in Spanish for many minutes. Something that was in the heart of the tall trooper— something which shone out of his eyes—soothed the sor- row of the poor Porto Rican as he told the story of Toreador, the game one, and of Marie, who lived with her mother away up toward the great white cliffs. And one time Silk Redmond had to turn his face away so the other might not see that something which was in his eyes, for it was something which did not look well COMMielaoo KS (S@)